Spec Check Please

Daniel

Daniel

Daniel

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Joined
3 Jun 2004
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557
Location
Bristol
My current PC is now 5 years old and showing signs of wearing out so I am looking to upgrade. Can you please tell me if everything listed is compatible or if there is something that needs changing.

Crucial RealSSD M4 256GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - £299.99
Intel Core i7-2700K 3.50GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail **Supplied with BattleField 3 PC Game** - £261.98
MSI Z68A-GD65-G3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard - £149.98
Kingston HyperX Genesis 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3K4/16GX) - £71.99
Gelid Tranquillo CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940/AM2/AM2+/AM3/LGA775/LGA1155/LGA1156/LGA1366) - £25.99

I don't necessarily need 16GB of memory but for the price it seemed worthwhile. I already have a case, PSU and a 5870 graphics card from my old system.

Thanks for your help
Dan
 
Its all compatible etc, thats a lot of RAM:D

MAybe check the width f avaliblke space to the case side panel for the Gelid? but its not that tall at 153mm ± 1%
 
I have a Akasa Eclipse 62 case. It's quite an old case but it's nice and big and easy to work with so I see no reason is changing it. My reason for upgrading is because I am having random restarts. I had a new Corsair PSU about a year ago so I don't think it's that so am leaning towards the caps failing on the motherboard which is about 5 years old now.

Thanks for your help
Dan
 
I have just ordered my new system but changed the Kingston memory for G.Skill RipJawsZ 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit (F3-12800CL9Q-16GBZL) and am now unsure if it's a good move.

The MSI site doesn't have it listed as supported and the G.Skill site says it's for the X79 chipset. However, the description on OCUK says that it's designed specifically for Intel Sandy Bridge-E LGA1155 processors, and H67, P67, Z68 and X79 motherboard platforms. So, my question is...Will this memory be ok for MSI Z68A-GD65-G3 Intel Z68?

I haven't built a PC for 5 years so am not up with the latest tech.


Thanks for your help
Dan
 
It will work, possitive of that.

Its the gelid fitting with the RAM and its slightly tall heatspreader that concerns me. I can see three scenarios.

1) it fits and clears.
2) it doesnt fit so something has to go, either swap the ram or the heatsink.
3) the gelid need to be fitted with the fan blowing south to north instead of east to west.
 
stulid said:
It will work, possitive of that.

Its the gelid fitting with the RAM and its slightly tall heatspreader that concerns me. I can see three scenarios.

1) it fits and clears.
2) it doesnt fit so something has to go, either swap the ram or the heatsink.
3) the gelid need to be fitted with the fan blowing south to north instead of east to west.
Click to expand...

Yes I agree, I was initially gonna go with the Vengeance which is similar to G skills in terms of the heatspread size. Im glad I went for the Ballistix sport and its just about touching the Gelid cooler.
 
phone up on monday and change the ram to the kingston you originally had speced or the gelid to a closed loop liquid cooler corsair h60(£55) or antec kuhler 620(£45)
 
Thank you for your help.

Right...If I go for a Corsair H60 I will then be able to use the memory I have. A couple of questions.

1. Is the H60 going to be better cooling over the Gelid?

2. I have an Akasa Eclipse case so how would I fit the H60? The case only has front and rear 120mm fan holes. Would the H60 radiator fit on the outside of the case in place of the rear fan?

Sorry for all the questions :P

Dan
 
1) Hmmm, lets call it even, but a Kuhler620 is abetter performer than the H60.

2) Mount the supplied fan to the rear 120mm space, and use the four screws supplied with washers to go from the outside of the case into the plastic fan body and then into the rad. have the rad mounted so the two pipes are at the bottom, there is an arrow of the side of the fan showing airflow, have it blowing into and over the rad. So after its fitted you have both the fan and rad on the inside of the case.
 
Thanks for your help. It looks like the Kuhler620 will be a good option and because the heat is vented out of the case, I guess it will be cooler than a normal heatsink and fan?

I'm not so sure about turning the front fan around as surely some cool air still needs to go into the case. Wouldn't hot air be vented out through the radiator and the PSU?

Dan
 
The way you are suppose to mount a 620/H60 is with the fan on the rear sucking air into the case and then through the rad.
 
In the end I chose to change back to the memory I originally had to save hassle and spending more money. My parts should be here tomorrow. I have some questions as My last build was a Q6600 system so am out of date with things.

My new motherboard has SATA III ports, 2x intel and 2x marvel. Am I right in thinking that the intel one is the best one to connect my SSD to?

Also, I would like to have my SATA II 1TB drive as the D: drive for backups so I guess I just connect that to a standard SATA II port and all should be fine?

I noticed it says that SSD works best in AHCI mode. If the bios is set to this mode then will the SATA II mechanical drive still run ok or is this AHCI thing changed on a per channel basis in the bios?


Thanks for your help
Dan
 
My new motherboard has SATA III ports, 2x intel and 2x marvel. Am I right in thinking that the intel one is the best one to connect my SSD to?
Click to expand...

Yep, also set the SATA controller for this to AHCi from IDE before the install, remove the old HDD also while installing to the SSD and fit the HDD after its complete and you can then just format it clean.

Also disable disk defrag.

Also, I would like to have my SATA II 1TB drive as the D: drive for backups so I guess I just connect that to a standard SATA II port and all should be fine?
Click to expand...

yep.

I noticed it says that SSD works best in AHCI mode. If the bios is set to this mode then will the SATA II mechanical drive still run ok or is this AHCI thing changed on a per channel basis in the bios?
Click to expand...

You will probably see two sata settings in the bios, one for the Intel the other for the Marvel, just set both to AHCi (even if you dont use the ports), the HDD will be ok either way.
 
I now have everything set up and it all seems to be running ok. I have a couple of questions about temps and the PWM CPU fan.

In the bios it says the CPU temp is 43C but in CPUID HW monitor and Speedfan it says: Core 0: 27C - Core 1: 29C - Core 2: 26C - Core 3: 18C. So which is best to believe? I have already updated the bios to the latest. Looking at it...Maybe the bios is giving an average on two cores added together...I have no idea.

I have a PWM fan on the cooler that is spinning at 1450rpm all the time. I can't see any setting in the bios for fan control for auto, voltage and PWM. There is a setting to set fan speed on heat threshold and the percentage the fan should spin when it hits that threshold. I don't think this is the same.

I have two PWM system fans connected to the system PWM header. These fans are daisy chained and seem to be using PWM properly as they are only spinning at 450rpm.


Thank you for your help.
Dan
 
In the BIOS the speedstep apparently dont work so it runs at the stock 3.4Ghz, while in windows and at idle the speedstep does work and slows the cpu down to about 1.6Ghz and thus you get lower temps.

Use CPU-Z to show you the current core speed.
 
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